People posting about how they’ve never seen em dashes used before the rise of ChatGPT are really great at telling folks they’ve never read a book before.

When everyone can hear it, it is no longer a dog whistle

Concluding paragraph:

A great read on UChicago, arguing we’re seeing the result of decades of mismanagement: “The university’s trustees and leaders view it preeminently as a tax-free technology incubator, and its debt load is so great that it is abandoning ideals it once held dear in order to sustain that goal.”

I'm thrilled to be returning to beloved home turf & our treasured Magers and Quinn Booksellers for a #WildforAusten event, Weds., Sept. 24th at 7 p.m.. I'll be in conversation about #JaneAusten with the brilliant Andrea Kaston Tange. See you there? Free reg here: www.eventbrite.com/e/devoney-lo...

Let's not use "hallucinate" or "lie" when we talk about ChatGPT. It can't make decisions, it doesn't have a conscious thought, it's not having a conversation with you. It's regurgitating false information based on stolen content without context or nuance.

I really needed this today. Ayanna Thompson sent me a link to this jaw-dropping thing they built with a Mellon grant at @acmrs.bsky.social You can get lost in it. A spectacular reminder that digital resources don't have to be about surveillance, coercion, & disciplining the labor force.

Washington Post: “Is fascism bad? The answer may surprise you” Teen Vogue: “Here are three fun tips you can use this summer to disable an armored personnel carrier”

The other day I asked three different AI to do a straightforward multiplication problem, and they all got it wrong. I assure you, @historians.org, AI cannot accurately summarize a history text, no matter how simple. And, as you know, most histories aren’t simple!! RECONSIDER THIS.

Yup: www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019...

This is a must-read.

💯

say it again: 4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities demolishing higher education is economic sabotage

It's important to note here that we're not just talking about faculty & university staff. 100s of U.S. colleges are in towns or small cities where they form the major industry & lifeblood of the community. Loss of students -> loss of rent $, restaurant $, bars, bookstores, gaming stores...

The 2025 @aaup.org Faculty in the South Survey is live. If you are a professor in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, or Texas it's for you. Ends 8/29 at 5pm Eastern forms.gle/v7T3BH2w9LXs...

This interview is so clear & quietly devastating. Public media as we understand it is over. This is not about the end of NPR & PBS. They might be able to find ways to continue to make programs. Instead of content, this is about the capacity to broadcast at all - antennae, transmitters, licenses. 🧵

Palestinian children have been killed at a rate of more than one child per hour during Israel's war in Gaza. “A whole classroom of children killed every day for nearly two years,” UNICEF’s executive director said. Here are some of their stories: wapo.st/3UCiAjn

For @slate.com, I wrote about one dimension of the totalizing Trump/Miller immigration crackdown that's not getting enough notice, which is that they're moving to make indefinite detention — with no release dates and few options to get out — a norm

The @aaup.org report on AI is so hugely important. Among other key takeaways is the fact that most AI programs have been introduced by administrative fiat and by circumventing meaningful faculty, student, & staff consultation. shorturl.at/InI5Q

We are six months into the second Trump administration and the scale and severity of its assault on our nation's science and democracy has been unrelenting. Today, @ucs.org releases a detailed assessment of the damage so far and where we go from here: www.ucs.org/resources/sc... #ProtectScience

FEMA is preparing to send $608 million to states to construct immigrant detention centers as part of the Trump administration’s push to expand capacity to hold migrants.

Public broadcasting is about more than content. It's about an ethos. That there need to be spaces in society that are not soaked in the logic of consumerism and profit. Where people are treated as citizens, valued for humanity and their ideas rather than disposable income. It's simple, but powerful.

AI overviews are destroying search, destroying websites, and are easy to game. Really bleak stuff here: www.404media.co/googles-ai-i...

"Every time I leave the tent to cover an event, conduct an interview, or document a fact, I don't know if I'll come back alive." www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-ea...

“Without immediate intervention, the last remaining reporters in Gaza are going to die.”

Today, I resigned as Series Editor of the Hagiography beyond Tradition series & member of the Academic Board for the Premodern Health Disease and Disability series at @amsterdamupress.bsky.social with immediate effect. If any other SEs/Board Members wants to talk about my rationale, my DMs are open

“If the universities—or in this case a university press—are not willing to stand up for what is core to their mission, I don’t know what they’re doing. What’s the point?”

Shaimaa has a scholarship to do a PhD on Palestinian literature with me at @uoe-llc.bsky.social, but she's stuck in Gaza because the foreign office won't help. Please share. www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...

🚨BREAKING: The last journalists working for AFP in Gaza have said they can no longer work for the news agency. They are out of energy and they are starving to death. I have never seen a statement from a news organisation like it. 🧵

Oh God, he’s gonna make a baby Hitler robot

“keep politics out of kids movies” disney in 1973:

Dystopian and authoritarian … protesting a genocide is terrorism, but conducting a genocide is defending freedom and humanity, I guess. The UK has leaned nothing from Orwell and its own colonizing, genocidal history. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

“I’m plainly convinced that my situation in this ICE jail is direct retaliation for my coverage,” Mario Guevara told @ajc.com in an exclusive interview from the Folkston, Georgia ICE detention center where he is currently detained, despite a judge's bail order. “I haven’t committed any crimes.”

BREAKING: At least 116 Palestinians, including 38 people near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid sites, have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza today, according to medical sources in the enclave. 🔴 LIVE updates: aje.io/f6uvdq

I wrote "How Heeding Disabled People Can Help Everyone Survive Crises" and for a second there it really looked like policymakers and government folks understood what i was poiting at. Guess not tho. slate.com/technology/2...

Remember all that fulminating in the billionaire press about "free speech" (ie their freedom to abuse Muslims, trans people etc with impunity)? Now that people are being arrested for speaking about an issue of the utmost gravity, the self-appointed guardians of liberty have fallen strangely silent.

It's utterly mad. These people are the opposite of terrorists. THEY WANT PEACE. The police know they're not terrorists. The government knows they're not terrorists. Yet, on the Home Secretary's orders, they're being arrested under the Terrorism Act. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

I’m raising £5K for a one-time poetry prize that bypasses the bullshit; no panels, no prestige theatre. Just 3 poems, paid properly. No gatekeepers. No performance. Just poetry that matters. Donate, share, shake the system. 🔗 thebrokenspine.co.uk/2025/07/19/w... #PromoteIndieLit #PoetryIsPolitical

The difference between dumb and smart dogs is also striking, some dogs have only one brain cell full of good will to all creatures and others could file your taxes if they had thumbs.

CONFIRMED: Arturo Suárez, the musician imprisoned by the Trump admin without due process in El Salvador for 4 months is FREE. A video shows him telling his brother that while they were imprisoned, they were beaten daily by guards. Remember: this is the first ever mass release from CECOT.

NPR and PBS received ~$85 million last year in federal funding. Trump’s golf trips will cost taxpayers over $100 million this year. Republicans think kids learning to read is wasteful spending and indoctrination, while giving a blank check to their cult leader to golf isn’t.

Part of this story is the co-option of the rhetoric of mission-oriented professions by the consulting portion of the for-profit sector.

NEW in NYT: Costs for digital content at libraries are spiraling, placing huge burdens on libraries providing access for patrons. Read more about solutions offered by state legislatures - with analysis from ALA Fellow Alan Inouye & CT library leader Ellen Paul: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/16/b...

From the article: ...library access to digital books and digital audiobooks ... generally costs much more than the print version of these books." Find out how new proposals could change the landscape: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/16/b... #eBooksForAll

It's a real "Fascism is already here but it's distributed unequally' sort of situation

We're not "descending into" fascism in the U.S. We are living under a fascist regime already. I wonder when most people will catch up to this reality and what that might portend.

So my journal asks people who submit article manuscripts to list possible reviewers AND people they'd rather not have read it. For the latter 'opposed' list we ask for a brief explanation. And last night I got the best explanation I've ever seen: "He's a prick." Fair enough sir.

For the first time since she was freed from an immigration prison, Rümeysa Öztürk speaks. And she does so by ... writing: "Writing is the heart of freedom of expression. Unbelievably, this single opinion piece, published in our student newspaper, would lead to my arrest and detention."

And, uh, some personal news: This is also my last column for The Post. I was offered and accepted a buyout. To answer one possible next question, I'm not sure what's next save taking some time off. If you want, you can enter your email at pbump.net and I'll let you know when I figure it out!